What do Airbnb, Uber, and Kickstarter have in common? Answer: they are marketplaces for thousands of small entities to act collectively as the world’s largest hotel, biggest limo service, and most interesting investor. Today, thanks to the digital age, organized cottage industries can outperform those large corporations. The question is, can this apply to real estate development?

Davie Village, a lively and diverse neighborhood in Vancouver’s West End, has a rich cultural history as the LGBTQ capital of the city. After area residents made clear to the City their desire for more public spaces in which to gather, meet friends, and hold events, VIVA Vancouver initiated a pilot project that would breathe new life into this treasured historical and cultural neighborhood.

I once heard a Norwegian saying, “Det fins ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær” - “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.” Winter is here, but that doesn't mean that public spaces have to go away once the frigid air and snow move in (unless of course you’re Buffalo. Sorry, Buffalo…). Especially In the world of public space activation, these are certainly words to live by.

Before its remarkable revival, the Perth Cultural Center (PCC) was a model of the brutalist architecture that defines many academic buildings of the 1960s and 1970s. In 2009, however, something incredible happened. In a relatively short period of time, Perth’s Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority (MRA), in collaboration with PPS and various other stakeholders, began transforming this rundown square into what is now the heart of the city.

PPS's Communications and Outreach Manager Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman was fortunate recently to visit Ireland on a brief but informative tourist trip. Taking a moment out of the scheduled hustle, she took the opportunity to record some of the public spaces of Dublin and Galway - while searching for an elusive public seat.

Where once there were two parking lots on either side of Main Street in the center of downtown Fort Worth, there is now the much-loved and much-used Sundance Square. The Square has become an integral part of the downtown Fort Worth experience, hosting events both large and small, and taking on an increasing role in the life of the city.

Many great public spaces have grown out of communities resisting development. It is the evolution from opposition to proactive visioning - helping to create, finance, and manage public spaces - that often makes the opposition successful. Congress Square, and the community around it, are forging this story of transformation.

At first glance, a Google image search for the term “Detroit” returns an alarmingly one-sided portrayal of the Motor City. Photographs of crumbling buildings dominate so much that other parts of the story - a Tigers game, a skyline view, a Diego Rivera mural - fade into the background. Scroll a bit further and one image breaks through the monotony - a beach.

In June, 2014, leaders from Southern African cities gathered in Durban to talk public spaces and came out champions of Placemaking. The resulting report, summarizing the pioneering gathering of over 200, highlights the transformative role a focus on public spaces can have on addressing equity and governance in Africa.

A lot can happen in the space of a front porch, and for many Latino-Americans it is even the epicenter of life in their communities. This second guest article by James Rojas details more of his pioneering research on Latino Placemaking, this time focusing on the front porch's role in Latino-American households.

This past April we announced Heart of the Community, our multi-year partnership with Southwest Airlines, in San Antonio’s newly reopened Travis Park. We plan to complete projects in more cities as the program grows, and are currently accepting applications for 2015 projects through September 15, 2014.

This past month PPS project associate Nidhi Gulati was presenting in Bogota, Colombia at the Second International Forum on Public Space. Seizing this opportunity, Nidhi spent her days touring and observing the "Athens of South America's" public spaces, the result of which is the fourth in a series of Placemaking photoblogs.